Black Women Rally Behind Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton never goes very far without black women sharing the stage, introducing her around or casting ballots for her in outsize numbers—and they are a prime reason she stands on the cusp of claiming the Democratic presidential nomination. Black women have long played a big role in Mrs. Clinton’s life and career, and now their expanding roles in politics—as voters, officeholders and activists—have lifted the Clinton campaign in multiple ways.
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Ahead of the New York primary this month, Rep. Yvette Clarke, a black woman who represents Brooklyn, was constantly at her side. In Ohio, she frequently shared the stage with Rep. Marcia Fudge of Cleveland.
Winning with African-American voters carries outsize importance because of Democratic Party rules that the Clinton campaign grasped early on. Delegates to the national convention are allocated by congressional district, and districts that have historically turned out more Democratic votes get more delegates. The result: Districts with large black populations have many more delegates than others. Take Ms. Fudge’s northeast Ohio district. Typically, congressional districts each get between four and eight delegates, but hers had 17, more than any other in the nation. Eleven of them went to Mrs. Clinton.
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It isn’t just an Obama effect, said Maya Harris, who studied the subject at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, and who now works for the Clinton campaign. She pointed to the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial race, when high turnout rates among black women helped elect Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who took 38% of white women but a whopping 91% of black women.
At the same time, more black women are being elected to office in their own right. There are 20 black women in the House, including two nonvoting members, many of whom have campaigned with Mrs. Clinton. Four black women are big-city mayors. And black women have increased their representation in state legislatures by nearly 50% since 1994, according to a study by the Center for American Women & Politics at Rutgers University.
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Black women also are the driving force behind activist groups that hold particular sway in the Democratic Party, such as Black Lives Matter and Mothers of the Movement, made up of women who have lost children to gun violence or in police custody, and who are pushing for new gun restrictions and police accountability.
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In interviews, many black voters and leaders said they relate to Mrs. Clinton’s long, bumpy career, including the public airing of her husband’s extramarital affairs. “She has taken a beating for many things publicly, and she’s still standing. And we feel the same way,” Ms. Fudge said. They also sense that she is comfortable with black women, not putting on a show to get votes.
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The impression is bolstered by Mrs. Clinton’s personal relationships. Her chief of staff at the State Department, 2008 campaign manager and her first boss after law school have all been black women. She has counted many well-known black women as friends, such as the late Dorothy Height, a civil rights and women’s rights activist.
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